Pri­est points mus­ket at boy over foot­ball

LIT­TLE FERRY — A pri­est ac­cused of point­ing a func­tion­ing but un­loaded mus­ket at an 8-year-old boy in a church’s rec­tory will plead not guilty, his lawyer said, ex­plain­ing it as a joke spurred by the ri­valry be­tween the New York Gi­ants and the Dal­las Cow­boys.

The Rev. Kevin Carter was ar­raigned Tues­day on charges of child en­dan­ger­ment and ag­gra­vated as­sault by point­ing a firearm.the pri­est, who was charged last week and is free on $15 000 cash bail, ex­pressed con­cern on Mon­day for any “trauma” that pub­lic­ity from the case may have caused the boy and his fam­ily. But in a state­ment is­sued by his lawyer, the 54-yearold pri­est said he was “con­fi­dent” he would be vin­di­cated.

The charges against Carter stem from a Sept. 13 in­ci­dent at St. Mar­garet of Cor­tona Ro­man Catholic Church in Lit­tle Ferry. carter, an avid Gi­ants fan, and the boy, who roots for the Cow­boys, were talk­ing about foot­ball. The NFL teams were sched­uled to play that night.

Pros­e­cu­tor John Mo­linelli said Carter asked the boy to step into one of the rec­tory’s rooms and stand against a wall, where he pointed the mus­ket at him.

A parish­ioner re­ported the in­ci­dent to the Arch­dio­cese of Ne­wark late last month, and of­fi­cials there no­ti­fied prose­cu­tors. — AP